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In a major win in the expanding market for digital payments for mass transit, Elavon Inc. said it will support contactless payments for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the seventh largest U.S. transit system with 45.6 million riders per year, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
The new service, which will enable payments from any card or mobile device with contactless capability, allows the transit system to move away from reliance on dedicated transit cards or paper tickets and is expected to speed transactions in a system that depends on timely movement. SEPTA also says it expects the move to reduce its transaction costs, though details about these costs were not immediately available.
Besides processing by Elavon, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, the service will rely on Visa Inc.’s Acceptance Platform for gateway services and payment management, according to Elavon’s announcement.
Contactless payments technology has been seen as particularly critical for mass transit, which relies on speedy transactions to move large crowds of riders on a tight schedule. Recent mass-transit applications include the Toronto Transit Commission.
Atlanta-based Elavon in September 2022 launched its contactless platform for mass transit following pilots the company had conducted in California. The company has also supported mass-transit programs in Europe. As with the latest deployment for SEPTA, the company lays stress on the fact that its service will process payments from any contactless card or mobile device, eliminating the need for riders to use cards specific to any particular transit agency. “We’re continuing to have discussions with transit agencies on our open-loop, contactless support for the range of benefits it provides to both the operator and riders,” an Elavon spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News by email.
The Covid pandemic also lent momentum to the trend among transit agencies to adopt contactless technology, sources say.
Among other transit systems Elavon now supports for contactless fare payment are several in Europe, including those in Venice and Genoa, and systems in Monterey, Calif., and Myrtle Beach, S.C.
